Important Quotations Explained
1. I
sing of warfare and a man at war.
From the
sea-coast of Troy in early days
He came to
Italy by destiny,
To our Lavinian western
shore,
A fugitive, this captain, buffeted
.
. .
Till he could found a city and bring home
His
gods to Laetium, land of the Latin race,
The
Alban lords, and the high walls of Rome.
Tell
me the causes now, O Muse, how galled
. .
.
From her old wound, the queen of gods compelled
him—
. . .
To undergo
so many perilous days
And enter on so many
trials. Can anger
Black as this prey on the
minds of heaven?
(I.
1–
19)
2. Did
you suppose, my father,
That I could tear
myself away and leave you?
Unthinkable; how
could a father say it?
Now if it pleases
the powers about that nothing
Stand of this
great city; if your heart
Is set on adding
your own death and ours
To that of Troy,
the door's wide open for it.
(II.
857–
863)
3. Roman,
remember by your strength to rule
Earth's
peoples—for your arts are to be these:
To
pacify, to impose the rule of law,
To spare
the conquered, battle down the proud.
(VI.
1151–1154)
4. Amata
tossed and turned with womanly
Anxiety and
anger. Now [Allecto]
Plucked one of the snakes,
her gloomy tresses,
And tossed it at the
woman, sent it down
Her bosom to her midriff
and her heart,
. . .
Slipping
between her gown and her smooth breasts
.
. .
While the infection first, like dew of
poison
Fallen on her, pervaded all her senses,
Netting
her bones in fire.
(VII.
474–
490)
5. When
two bulls lower heads and horns and charge
In
deadly combat . . .
. . .
[They
g]ore one another, bathing necks and humps
In
sheets of blood, and the whole woodland bellows.
Just
so Trojan Aeneas and the hero
Son of Daunus,
battering shield on shield,
Fought with a
din that filled the air of heaven.
(XII.
972–
982)
